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Monday Meeting

Monday again already?! How did that happen? I hope you all had the most marvellous of weekends and are all set for a new week of writing. Have you been finding time to meet your writing goals? Don't forget, this day we write! If you're on Twitter, use the hashtag #thisdaywewrite to tell us your writing goals and check in and let us know how you're doing.

But we know a good writing day requires both inspiration and procrastination, so once again we bring you both, in the form of introductions to a couple of our SiWC 2012 presenters.

The trusty hat got knocked on the floor last night, so the possible choices are freshly shaken up, ready for today's random picks. Here we go!

This first presenter's travels this year include Lithuania and the UK, but come October, she'll be here with us. Say hello to Diana Gabaldon:

Diana Gabaldon is the author of the award-winning, #1 NYT-bestselling OUTLANDER novels, described by Salon magazine as "the smartest historical sci-fi adventure-romance story ever written by a science Ph.D. with a background in scripting "Scrooge McDuck" comics." The adventure began in 1991 with the classic OUTLANDER ("historical fiction with a Moebius twist"), has continued through six more New York Times-bestselling novels--DRAGONFLY IN AMBER, VOYAGER, DRUMS OF AUTUMN, THE FIERY CROSS, A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES, and AN ECHO IN THE BONE, with nineteen million copies in print worldwide The series is published in 24 countries and 21 languages, and includes a nonfiction (well, relatively) companion volume, THE OUTLANDISH COMPANION, which provides details on the settings, background, characters, research, and writing of the novels. Gabaldon (it's pronounced "GAH-bull-dohn"—rhymes with "stone") has also written several books in a sub-series featuring Lord John Grey (a major minor character from the main series): LORD JOHN AND THE PRIVATE MATTER, LORD JOHN AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLADE, and LORD JOHN AND THE HAND OF DEVILS. Another Lord John book, LORD JOHN AND THE SCOTTISH PRISONER, was published in 2011). Returning to her comic-book roots, she has also written a graphic novel titled THE EXILE (set within the OUTLANDER universe and featuring the main characters from OUTLANDER), but told from the viewpoint of Jamie Fraser and his godfather, Murtagh. The graphic novel is illustrated by Hoang Nguyen, and was published by Ballantine in 2010.

Welcome back, Diana!

Brand new to us this year is agent Sarah LaPolla:

Sarah LaPolla is an associate agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd. She studied creative writing at Ithaca College, and has an MFA in creative nonfiction from The New School. She joined Curtis Brown, Ltd. in 2008 as the assistant to the foreign rights department, and became an associate agent in 2010.

Sarah represents both adult and YA fiction. For adult books, she is looking for literary fiction, urban fantasy, magical realism, mystery, literary horror, and has a soft spot for short story collections. On the YA side, she welcomes contemporary/realistic fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, magical realism, mystery, thriller, and horror. No matter the age of the intended audience, Sarah is drawn to voice-driven narratives and strong protagonists.